In an aseptic filling machine holders, like glass or plastic bottles, carbon packages, or the like, can be sterilized and subsequently filled with a product, in particular a food product, under sterile conditions. After being filled with the product, the holders can be hermetically closed under these same sterile conditions with a sealing element, like a screw cap, foil lid, or the like. These actions of sterilizing, filling and closing of the holders take place at sterilization, filling and closing stations. Before starting with an actual production phase during which the holders are sterilized, filled and closed, firstly the stations are sterilized in a pre-production phase. The stations are placed in a machine base frame in which an aseptic zone is defined. The aseptic zone is also sterilised prior to starting the actual production.
The proper aseptic operation of such an aseptic filling machine is monitored on the basis of a number of defined critical control parameters, so-called CCP's. As soon as one of these CCP's gets outside a pre-defined range, the production phase or the pre-production sterilization phase, is immediately stopped. Only after it has been detected what went wrong, and, if necessary, after maintenance has been performed, the production phase can be re-started again. Before re-starting the production process, it is however necessary to first sterilize the stations themselves, and the aseptic zone, again. In presently known aseptic filling machines, the CCP's are monitored continuously. Not only during the actual production phase, but also during the pre-production phase of sterilization of the stations and of the aseptic zone, and sometimes even during stand-still of the machine. With this all the measured data for the CCP's are saved on a legal data recorder, so that the data can be used as evidence for governmental health department rules.
A disadvantage of this is that the total number of CCP's can be enormous. In fact since during the last years the design of the aseptic filling machines gets more and more complex, the total number of CCP's increases rapidly. At this moment there are aseptic filling machines known in which 1000-1500 CCP's are defined, all of which need to be monitored continuously. This permanent monitoring of such a large number of CCP's is very complex and expensive, particularly when they all need to be saved on a legal data recorder. Furthermore it is disadvantageous that the larger the number of CCP's, the more complex, expensive and less reliable the aseptic filling machine becomes.